Influence of deposition conditions on self-assembled growth of Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ nanorods by pulsed laser deposition at elevated oxygen pressure

Abstract

Self-assembled Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) nanorods were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at an elevated oxygen pressure. PZT grew as a film in the initial growth stage and formed nanorods upon further deposition. The influence of the substrate temperature, target-substrate distance, and Pb composition of the targets on nanorod growth was investigated. It was found that the average radius of the PZT nanorods was larger at higher substrate temperatures and longer target-substrate distances, which can be explained respectively by the enhanced surface diffusion and shadowing effect of the PLD species. The results of this study can contribute to controlling the sizes of PZT nanorods to tune their piezoelectric response.